


Roses In The Disarray

by Revan93



Series: They Told Me Once, Don't Trust The Moon [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Boston, M/M, Marauders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-05-20 11:49:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14894085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Revan93/pseuds/Revan93
Summary: Remus and Sirius are settling into a relationship, but Remus needs to put some skeletons to bed.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Definitely wasn't planning this, but thank you for stopping by if you knew this basic basic story from before. And if you're new to the scene, I just really needed to indulge some regular teasing banter between these guys.

Remus set their coffees down at the table.  Sirius, hunched in his seat, cocked an ear to the ceiling, towards the speaker over the condiment bar.

“I’ve never heard this one before,” he said.

Remus switched his attention from chapped lips and dark hair.

_There I was, none the wiser  
Both of us, different trajectories_

Remus smiled.  “I have.”

Sirius smiled back, then popped the lid on his cup and tore open five sugar packets.  Remus took his black.

They sat for half a minute, all the typical noise of Einstein’s lunch hour crowding in.  The storefront was all glass, all windows, and beyond the Common was green and alive, finally.  Spring at its high point, stretching in lawns and stone walkways from the corner of Boylston and Tremont.

Sirius, taking in the view.  “You remember when the Sox won last year?”

“Were you in the city for that?”

“Yeah.  Figured there’d be some crazy shit if they won.  Or if they lost.”

Remus took another sip of coffee, kept his eyes on Sirius, expectant.

“I met up with Reg right after the game.  We ended up on the Common, with James and Lily.”

“There’s no way,” Remus said, because he had an idea of where this was going.

Sirius grinned.  “I saw you on the bandstand, screaming your head off.”

“I think that was the first time I ever blacked out.”

It was also the first time he’d ever given a shit about baseball.  The pride of Boston had cast its spell, made him feel like he belonged in the city and not just a classroom.  And when half the school poured drunk and raucous onto the Common that night, he’d gone along, joyous for the fact that the Red Sox had won their first World Series since 2007.

He remembered forcing his way up the steps of the bandstand - he’d thought it was just some random stone gazebo, until Lily recounted his boozy antics the following morning, with a dose of local history.  He remembered climbing the metal railings, throwing his fist in the air and cheering with the crowd - _Let’s go Boston!_

And he remembered waking up in his bed, sunlight high through the blinds already, the interim hours wiped clean from his mind.  His roommate hadn’t been there, but Regulus had, wrapped around him, naked and warm.

“I was pretty drunk too,” Sirius said, consoling.

“You probably didn’t try and convince your best friend to have a threesome with his girlfriend watching.”

“I mean, I would’ve been trying to convince my brother.  So your idea was safer.”  Sirius examined his coffee for a second, then shrugged.  “Reg is pretty fit though.  It wouldn’t be so bad.”

Remus laughed, but leaned forward and tapped Sirius on the wrist.  Once, twice.  “You’re really beautiful, you know.”

“It’s the family jawline.  You’ve got a weakness for it.”

There wasn’t any resentment there, any kind of barb - just a joke, and a smirk.  But Remus wanted to erase any chance of there being a question, too.

“You remember that time at the Hog’s Head?” he said, keeping his fingers on Sirius, starting to trace a line up and down his forearm.

“When I dance-attacked you?  I know I should’ve just let you know it was me.”

“You’re fine.”  He stopped tracing, just let his hand rest on Sirius.  “And I was a drunk asshole that night, but - I didn’t even have to see your face to know I was attracted to you.  I liked the way you felt.”

Sirius wasn’t the type to blush.  Instead the edge of his lip quirked up, revealing teeth and the wet arc of his tongue.

“I still like the way you feel.  And I like the way you talk.”  He rolled his eyes, relenting.  “And the jawline is objectively great.  But it’s just a bonus.”

“You forgot the part about my incredible dick,” Sirius said, quietly enough for an outdoor space, maybe.

“Status pending, but I’ll take your word for it.”  Remus tried to make apologetic eye contact with the man whose grimace had swung their way.

“You want to let me show you?”  Sirius leaned in, choosing now to moderate his voice. “Everything’ll be settled by tonight.”

Anything said alongside that stare was going to have some predatory swagger, but it wasn’t an order or a demand or a promise.  It was only excitement, quiet and hopeful.

Remus was going to say yes.  He was going to _let_ himself say yes.  Because it’d been a month since that confrontation in the dining hall, and hesitating had never been for his own sake.

“Okay.”  Remus dipped his head, stared at the table, but his gut was already trembling.  And his dick, but he had to stand up in a second, so.  “I’ll text you when I’m back at my room.  But right now I’ve got to go, or I’ll be late.”

He swallowed the rest of his coffee, gave himself that chance to calm down.  Then he was up and brushing his clothes off.  Sirius followed his cue, grabbed their cups and maneuvered towards the trash.  Then they were out on the sidewalk together, Remus waiting to cross to the Common, Sirius coiled and smiling beside him.

The walk sign turned green, and Remus moved with the crowd, over his shoulder to Sirius saying, “I’ll talk to you soon!”

Sirius called back, “Don’t fuck him, okay?”  Half the crosswalk turned to glare, but all of the question had left his voice.  He was only joking.

Remus shook his head, grinned to himself.  Tried to focus on the conversation awaiting him, instead of the night, a promise for later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only thinking one more chapter for this one, to see the Remus / Regulus conversation. But after that, _definitely_ putting this to bed because my heart is desperately gunning for some video game AUs!
> 
> (Also I know having this take place in 2013 would mean some of my musical choices wouldn't exist, but continuity is for people that plan their stories with actual confidence and gumption pssshhh)


	2. Chapter 2

The bridge connecting Boston Common and the Public Garden wasn’t some special memory from their days as a couple.  They’d walked the Common a lot - on their second date, Regulus had stopped Remus, pointed at the pair of swans center-pond and said, “You know they’re lesbians, right?”  Remus had laughed.

And one time he’d blown Reg under the bridge, but it could have been anywhere with half a dozen shots of vodka thrown in.

It was just easy to meet at the bridge, today, since Reg had a class that afternoon and the Tall Building was only a ten minutes’ walk away. Ten minutes that Remus wished could’ve gone a lot slower, or faster, because there was the bridge and there was Regulus, leaning on the railing, pink shorts and a black t-shirt and the wire of his ever-present earbuds vanishing into a back pocket.

He looked up, saw Remus and smiled.  But instead of saying hello, when Remus got close, he took out his left earbud and held it out.  It was an old ritual of theirs: Regulus, with so few words, communicating what he could through music.

Remus leaned on the edge of the bridge, took the earbud and put it in.

_Notes, slipped under the doors  
Frozen to the floor - we believe everything_

Regulus had shown him this album for the first time, and the movie that’d made it famous.  It was a good song, and a good memory.

Remus handed the earbud back, cracked his neck before saying, “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“How’s the new place?”  The apartment Reg had moved to at the end of last semester, right after the break-up.

“It’s good.”  With that inflectionless belligerence Remus could now appreciate as a family trait: “How’s my brother?”

Remus laughed, because he should’ve known better than to expect anything else.  “He’s good.  He’s.. healthy, I guess?  Fuck, Reg, you know how he is.”

Reg’s eyes crinkled, the closest he usually came to laughing, sober.  He took a deep breath, stared across the Common.  Kept quiet, and Remus was starting to realize how much extra talking he’d done when they were together.

“How are you?” Remus said, after a strong breeze passed them by.

Reg took his time.  Tapped on the bridge, to some familiar melody passing through his head, probably.  Then, “I’ve been better.”

“You’re upset with me?”

“I don’t think so.”  He looked at Remus.  “I’m a little guilty.  A little sad.  It’s nothing to do with you, or Sirius, really.  It’s just been creeping up on me for a while.”

Remus looked out over the Swan Pond.  He couldn’t quite bring himself to look Reg in the eye.  “I think I was starting to get that, before..”

_Before you walked out on something that seemed kind of beautiful._

Regulus bumped his shoulder into Remus’s.  Said, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.”  And immediately on its heel, “I’m sorry too.”

“You want to walk around some?”

“Mm.”

Nearly side-by-side, they headed back into the Common, up the hill towards Brewer Fountain.  A group of guys were using too much space for a violent game of frisbee.  Down at the baseball field, a Quidditch team was running drills; Remus had tried to get into it freshman year, then realized he already spent too much time with a piece of wood shoved between his legs.

“Will you talk to someone, if you get too sad?” Remus said.  They were almost to the State Building now.  Reg turned, doubling back towards Einstein’s and the dorms.  “I know you trust Sirius more, but you could talk to me, if there’s no one else around.”

“You really don’t think I’m a bad guy?”

“No.”  Remus looked him in the eye, finally, sideways but still.  “Your brother asked me the same thing.  He was all ready to defend you.”

“ _Was_ ready?”

“He didn’t have to.”  Remus stopped walking.  Reg slowed, turned to face him.  He wasn’t crying, but relief, sharp and sudden, almost got him there.  “I haven’t been angry for a long time, okay?”

Regulus smiled, all of his teeth, rare for him but common for Sirius, and in that expression they looked so similar.  It was the kind of smile you could fall in love with, if someone gave it to you every day.

“I think you’re going to make each other happy,” Regulus said.

Remus looked back at the Common, the streets rising to a brick and metal skyline.  He thought of Lily, and Pete, and James.  And the brothers Black, whatever infectious chaos they’d planted in his life.

He thought of Boston, and smiled, and said, “I think so too.”


End file.
